If you’re viewing this page on a phone or tablet, please turn to view in landscape mode, thank you. If you can’t see the list of services on the right hand side please use the connecting links or scroll down for these and other events and information.

Updates during this time of pandemic and resources to use at home

• Following the plan that was set out, our churches are now all open for worship. Please Click here for details.
  
• Our worship and church life continues online in midweek and Sunday evening, led by Rev Lynn and the Ministry Team using Zoom software. These include morning and evening prayer and are still on most days of the week. Click here for details. Please contact Rev Lynn if you would like to join us, there is no requirement to live within our benefice, you would be most welcome! With our now having services in both in church and online on Zoom, we have become a “hybrid” church – a church that recognises that it is the being together that counts, more than where you are sitting, to worship God.
• We are reviewing our churches remaining open for private prayer. Details to follow.
• Our curate, Rev. Laura will be priested in Truro Cathedral on Saturday 26th June (Petertide) and your prayers are asked for her, her family and Rev. Lynn. Rev Laura will preside at Holy Communion for the first time on Sunday 27th June at 10am at St Germans Priory. These arrangements assume that current Covid guidance remains unchanged.
• Advance notice: Ecumenical said evensong with the Bishops of St Germans, +Hugh and his RC equivalent at the Priory has been rescheduled to September 10th. Admission will be by ticket to limit numbers. Details to follow.
• Pub theology continues online……click here for details, now moved to Monday evening, monthly, starting from June 7th.
  
• Lynn’s letter can be found here and we learn more about  Rosemary Stevenson, newly elected as Parish Warden.
  
• Our monthly newsletter can be downloaded here.
• At our APCM on 19th May, Rosemary Stevenson was elected as Parish Warden and Bill Woods stood down from that post. There were no other changes to officers or PCC members, with the exception of Bill Woods now joining as a PCC member. As already said at the meeting, our grateful thanks go to Bill for all the good work he has done!

• Have a look at this book of modern prayers – worth a read Come+Pray+with+Me
• A booklet of prayers during the pandemic can be downloaded here: Outbreak Prayer Book Digital Single Pages 2 April_0

Online options

The Truro Diocese all age session at 9.30 on Facebook continue on a Sunday as usual! There is now a rota for these sessions that will still include Bishop Philip and Ruth.

Or you could still listen to one of the many radio options – Radio 4, Radio Cornwall offer services on a Sunday around 8am.

Or you could look at: Church of England website that now has more services to join – or at many churches and cathedrals up and down the country who have other offerings

A very good resource is https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/church-online

Browse a whole range of prayers you can choose from to read – or listen to:

Or using your computer, tablet or phone (as you prefer) and from your web browser access morning and evening prayer using this link:

Click here and choose what you need.

To read or hear the prayer for today, click on this link: http://cofe.io/TodaysPrayer

Browse around the various pages and you’re sure to find something that interests you.

Alternatively download an App for your tablet or phone. Church House Publishing or provide a number of these Apps and these can be downloaded from https://www.chpublishing.co.uk/apps/daily-prayer

Parish Contacts

Parish Priest: Rev. Canon Lynn Parker – main point of contact for all matters

Curate: Rev. Laura Bushell-Hawke

Parish Wardens: Paul Gribble and Rosemary Stevenson

Readers/Licensed Lay Ministers: Richard Laugharne, Margaret Sylvester-Thorne, David Watters, Matt Frost

For weddings, baptisms, funerals and church services:  Rev. Canon Lynn Parker, David Watters and Margaret Sylvester-Thorne

Children’s work: Rev. Canon Lynn Parker, Evelyn Reed, David Watters, Margaret Sylvester-Thorne, Rev Laura Bushell-Hawke

Messy Church: Evelyn Reed

For buildings and general parish enquiries: the Parish Wardens:   Paul Gribble and Rosemary Stevenson

For Safeguarding:  Rev Laura Bushell-Hawke

Pastoral Visitors Team:  Pat Paxton

Parish Giving Scheme:  Paul Gribble

Finances: the Treasurer, Paul Gribble

Electoral Roll: Rosemary Stevenson

Enquiries about individual churches:

Downderry:  Andrew Pidgen

Hessenford: Fran Moore

St Germans: Richard Laugharne

Tideford: Evelyn Reed

Deanery Synod Reps:  David Watters,  Rosemary Stevenson and Paul Gribble

Cashiers: Peter Daw – St Germans; Tim Pullin – Downderry; Hugh Parker – Tideford and Fiona Bristow – Hessenford.

Additional PCC Members from May 2020

Tim Pullin, Stephen Guffick, Tilly Thompson, Yvonne Byles, Hugh Parker, Susan Booth, Dawn Couling, Fiona Bristow, and Bill Woods.

Hire and other info on St Germans Priory Church for events:

The St Germans Priory Trust:   www.stgermanspriory.info

Hire of the Church Hall in Hessenford:  http://www.hessenford.net

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Lynn’s letter:

Changes – not always as bad as you think!!

At the beginning of May there were major changes to the way weddings will be registered in the future. It was very unsettling for a lot of clergy and registrars as we got to grips with the new forms and way of doing things.

But like all forms of change, as soon as we understood the whys and wherefores then it made sense.

So, I got on with collecting up all the familiar green registers from the churches and “closed them” and returned them all to the registration office. It was a significant day, as couples will now no longer sit and sign church registers and get the old familiar large green wedding certificates to keep.

It is the end of an era, and something that I am quite sad about because signing the register and receiving one of the large green handwritten wedding certificates was a very special moment in the service.

BUT… time and technology move on and weddings will still be happening in church, with just the registering being a little different, but no less meaningful, I hope.

As with all aspects of change we need to find ways of making the new way special, and it is amazing how quickly the new system will become the norm.

Change has to happen in our lives and organisations, and it is how we cope with it and find ways to live with it. It is realizing that life does not stand still but changes and adapts to what is going on in the world, and to the new technologies that are available to us.

Of course, as well as conforming to the changing world around us, we too can be instigators of change where we see that change needs to happen.

But the one thing that doesn’t change is God.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever”. Hebrews 13:8

Always there to support us through whatever changes we have to go through.

Yours in Christ

Canon Lynn

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For this month’s newsletter please click on this link May Newsletter

Continuing our series of who’s who within the benefice – this month it is the turn of Rosemary Stevenson, our newly elected Parish Warden for the St Germans Group:

My name is Rosemary Stevenson and I have recently been elected as one of the Parish Wardens of the St Germans Group Parish.  I live in Downderry.

I was born in south London into a lovely family – my father worked for the Royal Bank of Canada and my mother was a “stay at home” Mum who also found time to sing in the church choir, run a Boys’ Brigade Junior Section, belong to the Mothers’ Union and grow fruit and vegetables for us on an allotment. I was baptised at Talland Church near Polperro. We had no connection with Cornwall but my parents were friends of the Vicar there who they had met when he was Vicar in their London church. Little did I know that I would return to Cornwall many years later!

It was a very happy childhood for me and my brother in London with long summer holidays in Dublin, Ireland with my Grandmother and my uncles and their families. Church played a major role in the lives of my extended family as my mother and her brothers had been brought up within the Anglican Church of Ireland and the Protestant community was a small and close part of society in southern Ireland. Music was also important – my uncles had been both Cathedral choristers and one played the organ in church and the other sang and composed. My mother played the piano wonderfully. Unfortunately, despite numerous lessons, I didn’t have the same gift!

After a good education in a nearby Grammar School, I left for Reading University. After three years of fun there I came away with a degree in Archaeology and no real idea of what I wanted to do with my life. I joined Help the Aged as a fundraiser organising sponsored walks and swims, and returned to live in London. It was around this time that I met a young David Watters who allowed me to use the Roneo machine at the Threshold charity that he ran in Tooting, to duplicate my sponsorship forms! For those among you who are too young to remember, Roneo was a way to duplicate papers before photocopiers were invented! That was a hectic job and after a few years I wanted a change.

I got a job with a Public Relations Consultancy that specialised in Arab Embassies as clients. That was the start of an interesting number of years doing things such as helping to arrange an exhibition of Palestinian Folk Art at the Commonwealth Institute, producing a travel guide for the United Arab Emirates, editing a journal for the Libyan Embassy and accompanying Bassam Shakaa, the Palestinian Mayor of Nablus, to the Liberal Democratic Party Conference in Blackpool.

At the age of 28 I thought I should get a “proper” job, so I did a course in computing and joined British Telecom (as it then was) as a management trainee. Within a few years this branch of the Civil Service was privatised and immense change began. Working for such a large organisation meant that I had the opportunity to work in a number of different jobs and travel quite widely during my 23 years with the company. Over the years I also had the opportunity to be involved in “change” projects for the company and to meet many interesting people.

Around this time, I was appointed as a Justice of the Peace in the Inner London South Eastern area. This covered Greenwich and Woolwich and it introduced me to a new part of London and to lives very different from mine. Whilst sometimes very harrowing, it was immensely interesting and I learnt much from the experience.

I was also increasingly involved at my local church -All Saints Tooting Graveney, helping to organise the recording sessions held in the church (a wonderful source of income for the PCC) and serving on the PCC and as Churchwarden. It was a lively, multiracial and socially active church with a number of young ish people of my age – I made many friendships there. My faith began to grow and to become a more central part of my life. I also began my association with Downderry. David and Tim already had a holiday home in the village which I had visited many times and so in 1998 I bought the flat over the Doctors’ Surgery in Downderry. Thus began many happy weekends and holidays for me and my extended family and friends in this lovely village.

In 2005 I left BT. The following years were a time of many changes. My father died and my mother decided that she would like to move to Downderry to be nearer to my brother and his family who, by then, had moved to Liskeard. By 2010 my mother was living in the bungalow in which I now live and I had moved into a house in Trerieve. Many of you reading this will know the rest of the story. My mother had eight happy years in this friendly village and loved being involved with the Parish, especially “Open the Book”. She died in 2018.

I love living in this beautiful part of the country and being involved with you all in the Parish and the wider Benefice. Looking back on my life so far, I see how God has been with me every step of the way, even when I didn’t realise it!  I pray that he will be with me in what lies ahead and that our Christian community in this place will continue to flourish.

~   News and Events in the Parish   ~

All our public events have been cancelled for the time being but we are meeting online where we can.

Zoom Pub Theology

Now running fortnightly

A chance to discuss ideas and thoughts about all matter of things theological.

After a short introduction of 5 minutes (or more), the conversation is open.

Meet via Zoom from 7.30 – 8.30pm first Monday of the month, starting June 7th

Topics:       TBA….please let Richard have any suggestions

For a Zoom link or enquiries or suggestions, ring Richard Laugharne (01503-230333) or email on richard.laugharne@nhs.net

All welcome! Click here to go back to top.

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Cornwall Community Foundation award grant for Hessenford Hall

Following the heavy rains in December and January the church hall in Hessenford was flooded as the river rose and backed up against the bridge by the pub. The flooding was minor compared to the previous event a few years back, a testament to the effectiveness of the flood prevention measures put in after that, but nonetheless left the floor and lower walls very damp. The insurance assessor recommended use of an industrial dehumidifier and fan to do the drying out that was needed. Research quickly showed that after a short period or rental it was cheaper to purchase the equipment we needed, and we are delighted to have been awarded a grant by the Cornwall Community Foundation (CCF) for that purchase. A huge thank you to them, drying out is now going on. Purchase also means that we have equipment at the ready if this happens again, or to assist elsewhere in the benefice should there be a need. You can find out more about CCF’s other good works by clicking on this link: CCF website.

Thanks also go to the good folk on the hall committee for all the work they did clearing up and making the application for the grant – all much appreciated.

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Messy Church

meeting in St Germans Methodist Church

Currently cancelled, but work going on in the background

Messy Church is a form of church for children and adults that involves creativity, celebration and hospitality – it’s fun!

If you’d like to help out please speak to Evelyn or ring her on 01503 230449

Find out more at https://www.messychurch.org.uk/what-messy-church-and-isnt

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Events at St Germans Priory Church

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Advance notice:

Friday September 10th at 7pm, ecumenical evensong with

Hugh, Bishop of St Germans and the Roman Catholic Bishop of St Germans.

The previous visit by the Roman Catholic Bishop was a wonderful and historic, and this time we also have the relatively newly appointed Bishop Philip to complete the occasion. Details to follow.